This past weekend, we had DEMA's Be A Dvier pool at the Texas Parks & Wildlife Expo. Oak Hill Scuba, Scubaland Adventures and Tom's Dive & Swim teamed up to staff the event, offering a quick discover scuba to anyone age 10 & up. Eric Peterson from Aquarena Springs helped organize the event.
We had a blast and the event was an absolute hit with the crowd. 282 people signed up for the event on Saturday. I'm not sure how many wen through on Sunday, but I know it was more than 300. Most of them were kids and it was great to see the smiles on their faces as they left the pool.
Scubashawn setup a live webcast of the happenings on Saturday, on myfoxaustin.com. Pool sponsors and others around the world went online to check out the action. Even the Executive Director of DEMA went online to check it out. In addition to Fox 7, we had reporters in from 24, 42, 36 and New 8 Austin. ESPN 1530 AM did a live remote from 9:00 - 11:00 on Sunday.
I don't know the names of everyone who helped out, but I owe a huge THANKS to all of them. Several Swampers gave up all or part of their weekend to help out. I'm probably missing a few, but the list includes: Chrispete, Scubashawn123, <<Larry>>, K-Valve and LVX. :luxhello: Additionally, from my shop was Carol, Andrew, Nik, Karen, Amanda, Wayne, Pam, Paul and several others. All total, more than 50 people volunteered to help us put on this event and we actually could have used more help.
Texas Parks & Wildlife initially offered us a 1 time, "lets see how it goes" opportunity to bring in the pool. By Saturday afternoon, they were already talking about a meeting to plan for next year. I think they liked it.
I know that not everyone who went into the pool was a target customer, but for some of them, it may have been their only chance to try scuba diving. I'm sure there were a few future swampers in the crowd. They just did not know that until this past weekend.
In addition to all the volunteers listed above, Special Thanks to karen (Mrs Diver), Eric Peterson (Aquarena / SSI), Warren & Kelley (Tom's) and Rob & Jennifer (Scubaland), Jeff Mohr & Big Wave Dave (DEMA), Paul H, Liddia S, Trey H, Ernie G, Scott B, Tom H, Carter S and all the other fine folks at Texas Parks & Wildlife. Some of us spent close to a year working to make this happen and we will soon start work on next years event.
We had a blast and the event was an absolute hit with the crowd. 282 people signed up for the event on Saturday. I'm not sure how many wen through on Sunday, but I know it was more than 300. Most of them were kids and it was great to see the smiles on their faces as they left the pool.
Scubashawn setup a live webcast of the happenings on Saturday, on myfoxaustin.com. Pool sponsors and others around the world went online to check out the action. Even the Executive Director of DEMA went online to check it out. In addition to Fox 7, we had reporters in from 24, 42, 36 and New 8 Austin. ESPN 1530 AM did a live remote from 9:00 - 11:00 on Sunday.
I don't know the names of everyone who helped out, but I owe a huge THANKS to all of them. Several Swampers gave up all or part of their weekend to help out. I'm probably missing a few, but the list includes: Chrispete, Scubashawn123, <<Larry>>, K-Valve and LVX. :luxhello: Additionally, from my shop was Carol, Andrew, Nik, Karen, Amanda, Wayne, Pam, Paul and several others. All total, more than 50 people volunteered to help us put on this event and we actually could have used more help.
Texas Parks & Wildlife initially offered us a 1 time, "lets see how it goes" opportunity to bring in the pool. By Saturday afternoon, they were already talking about a meeting to plan for next year. I think they liked it.
I know that not everyone who went into the pool was a target customer, but for some of them, it may have been their only chance to try scuba diving. I'm sure there were a few future swampers in the crowd. They just did not know that until this past weekend.
In addition to all the volunteers listed above, Special Thanks to karen (Mrs Diver), Eric Peterson (Aquarena / SSI), Warren & Kelley (Tom's) and Rob & Jennifer (Scubaland), Jeff Mohr & Big Wave Dave (DEMA), Paul H, Liddia S, Trey H, Ernie G, Scott B, Tom H, Carter S and all the other fine folks at Texas Parks & Wildlife. Some of us spent close to a year working to make this happen and we will soon start work on next years event.
